Tony Stewart has confidence that Danica Patrick can have a decent rookie season in a Sprint Cup car even though she had a somewhat disappointing season in Nationwide and struggles in the select Cup races she drove in 2012.

Patrick finished 10th in the Nationwide standings, the best season-ending finish for a female but still far from the top-five she was hoping for when the season began. In her 10 Cup races, she had a top-20 finish in her last try.

Stewart indicated no worries about Patrick as she continues on her learning curve while making the transition from IndyCar to NASCAR. She will pilot a car for Stewart-Haas Racing.

"She's done a great job so far," Stewart said. "She's doing a good job in the learning process. It's not easy to go from a light IndyCar to a heavy stock car."

Patrick, 30, drove part time in the Nationwide Series for two seasons while also competing full time in the IndyCar Series in 2010 and 2011 before dumping the IndyCar life for full-time NASCAR in 2012.

"She's progressing," Stewart said. "What she's done in such a short amount of time has been very impressive so far."

People might scoff at such a statement by Stewart, viewing it as an owner trying to pump up his driver.

Stewart says he has seen the progress and as someone who has made the transition from IndyCar to NASCAR, he understands what it takes.

"Most of the people that do the picking and analyzing aren't people that actually understand how to analyze a whole race from start to finish and aren't qualified to make that judgment," Stewart said.

"But from our side as a team owner and teammate, I've seen great strides. She's made huge gains in a short amount of time and that shows talent."

The change at year's end that paired Patrick with the crew of Ryan Newman headed by Tony Gibson appeared to work well for Patrick for the last couple of races.

"I've seen an excitement in Tony that is above and beyond what we've seen for a long time," Stewart said. "He is really happy to work with her and vice versa.

"She really likes working with him. That's a good base and a good foundation to build on."

Gibson works well with Patrick because of his positive nature, Stewart said. Gibson also is used to high-pressure situations, from working on the crew of Cup champion Alan Kulwicki and working on the crew for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"Tony is a real patient guy," Stewart said. "He makes it fun. When you're bringing somebody like Danica in — it's a lot of stress and a lot of pressure that's not due to us, it's due to the media that's followed it.

"It's a double-edged sword for her. But having a crew chief that that's relaxed, that's just an asset for her. They're two totally opposite people but they're two people that fit together very, very well."

That chemistry also extends to team meetings, Stewart said.

"She's got a personality like Ryan and I do and that has made her an instant fit with us," Stewart said. "We all three are joking with each other non-stop. There's never a time when we're around each other that somebody is not picking at somebody. She's been a very natural fit from Day 1."

Even if she doesn't perform well right away, Stewart said Patrick contributes.

"She has great feedback," Stewart said. "She's a huge asset. … How she communicates what her car is doing is very helpful to Ryan and I."

Stewart was confident enough that he opted not to swap the 2012 owner points with Patrick's car. With Patrick's team 33rd in owner points, she could be in jeopardy of missing one of the first three races if she has a poor qualifying effort or crashes in the Daytona qualifier races.

If they swapped, Stewart could fall back on his past champion's provisional. But his race winnings would be impacted because of NASCAR's winner's circle program that awards more money to race-winning cars from the last few seasons in exchange for an appearance at a track to promote future races.

"I worked hard for my points," Stewart said. "That's the confidence I have in her. I really feel like Tony and that team has done a great job with building her a great car for Daytona, and I feel like she's definitely got the talent and capability of racing her way in and hopefully just qualifying in (by speed) to where we don't have to worry about the qualifying races.

"But I think she'll do a great job on her own. We, business-wise, had to keep the points that we had for our car because of the bonus money."

So he's not worried?

"We've got a smart enough racecar driver there that she can get this thing in no matter what," Stewart said.